


Activation

by CuddlePossum



Category: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra | Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux
Genre: Android Erik, Androids, Erik and his precious organ, Erik is cranky about music, F/F, Hallucinations, M/M, Meg and Christine are girlfriends change my mind, mechanical gore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-10-22 02:21:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17654210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuddlePossum/pseuds/CuddlePossum
Summary: Raoul's father bought an old burned down opera house from his son's childhood and he found an organ playing android in the cellars.





	1. Man in the Cellar

Deep in the cellars of the Opera Populaire, Raoul, son of a wealthy Count, found himself staring at an old, dust covered figure sitting on the bench of an old organ. The figure wore a top hat, tail coat, and the finest three piece suit Raoul had ever seen on a dusty, old cellar mannequin. Looking it over, however, Raoul realized that it wasn't a mannequin but an old android, one meant to play the organ who's bench he was bolted to, what a curious thing to find in a cellar.

Judging by the amount of dust this fine gent had been sitting in the cellars since the Opera Populaire had burned down some decades ago. Upon further examination it seemed that the Android hadn't escaped the blaze either, his synthetic skin seemed to be heavily melted, even burnt away completely in some places; he had no nose or nasal plate to make the shape of a nose, its right eye and the connected servos were completely exposed, and the glass of the eye was shattered to pieces and burnt beyond use. if Raoul wanted to salvage this pile of burnt scrap he would have to fix that, and Oh how Raoul wanted to save him.

Since his father had bought the Opera house and began rebuilding it Raoul and Philippe had been given free rein to reclaim whatever they wanted from the Opera house before their father gutted it and Raoul had made his choice. He'd be taking this handsome android home...somehow, and fixing him up good as new. The fist issue would be Removing him from the bench.


	2. Out of the Cellar

It took a lot of convincing and a bit of thinking on his feet but Raoul managed to convince his father that he really did want the antique 'droid, even in his horribly rundown and broken state. Phillipe was harder to convince, however, because as far as he was concerned the android was a clunker, "it probably won't even activate anymore, and who knows if it would even work away from its organ?" Philippe had made some good points in his argument, but in the end the brothers had made their way back into the cellar with a padded cart on treads, meant for traveling on rough terrain, though it worked well enough on the stairs.

By the time they'd unbolted the android from the bench, loaded the oddly light body into the cart, and carried him up into the opera house proper, the sun had begun its slow descent over the horizon. Philippe's face scrunched up in disgust when he got a better look at the android, "Raoul, I don't think you'll be able to salvage him, he's got a good bit of damage to his physical memory and it looks like some of the wiring around his jaw and eyes are melted and mangled messes. I don't think he'll ever be able to use this face or even this head, who knows how much you'll need to replace." Philippe said with a sigh as he knelt to better examine the lifeless android.

When their father saw the old, broken, and burnt android, he chuckled at his son's find, "I'm beginning to think you're obsessed with bringing home every broken down machine you see" he teased as he ruffled Raoul's hair. "Remember when he brought home an antique Walking Pony and spent weeks in your workshop trying to fix it?" Philippe teased, "I'll have you know I did eventually get that pony walking again" Raoul said, puffing his chest up proudly as he recalled how he'd gotten the broken down robot walking and even trotting again...only to have it break down a few days later because the tin and wood it had been made of couldn't withstand the constant play Raoul put it through with his friends Christine and Meg and in the end they had to deactivate it permanently, giving the antique to an antique toy museum to become an exhibit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the short chapters, I write as it comes to me and...I'm not really used to writing fics so I'm still getting used to how the flow feels. Hopefully they'll get longer the more I write


	3. 1847

Christine screamed when she first saw "The Phantom" in Raoul's workshop, "w-well he...certainly lives up to his name" she said with a nervous chuckle as she tried to ignore Raoul's snickers at her fright. "I found a playbill in the breast pocket of his waistcoat, a lot of the writing is either burnt or faded but they called him The Phantom because he was meant to play a musical ghost, and he starred in a three act tragedy but it only played for four nights before the opera burned down." "Oh I remember that, the music was so beautiful, I wonder if the android composed it himself, I've heard some of them can do that."

Raoul nodded, "I never got to see it, I wish I had though, if I knew this handsome devil was in the show I would have come for every showing" he joked. "Careful, I think he's blushing" Christine teased, laughing when Raoul actually turned to check on the man sitting half dressed on his desk. "Okay, all jokes aside, do you want to help me take inventory of his damaged and missing parts?" Christine smirked and whipped out her notepad, pen, and work scrunchy before tying up her hair dirty blond hair to keep it from being stained by any oil or dirty hydraulic fluid. It was a pain to get out and as much as Meg thought being a brunette suited her, oil and grease weren't the way to go about dying one's hair.

Raoul began undressing the Phantom slowly, cutting off pieces where the cloth had melted to synthetic skin, and admiring the detail painted on to said skin. The Phantom had ghostly pale skin with fine black hairs covering his arms and legs, a smattering of freckles over his shoulders and across his nose where the bridge once was, and had even been given real eyelashes and brows. Both Christine and Raoul were impressed with the level of detail put into the figure, for something that wouldn't be going out to greet audiences after a performance or welcoming people into the house and showing them to their seats. 

While Raoul began folding the Phantom's clothes and setting them in a nearby box, Christine got a better look at the android. "Raoul, look at this! He's got a little plate on his chest, it looks like it's his date of manufacture!" Raoul rushed over to examine it, the plate was gold and just below the dip in the Phantom's collar bone, it looked like a miniature version of the fancy gold plates used for room numbers in old hotels and had 1847 beautifully engraved upon it. "1847, he's an old fellow then isn't he?" Raoul said with a smile as he gave the Phantom's mop of singed black hair an affectionate pat.


	4. Smooth, Raoul, Smooth

The pair worked late into the evening and well into the afternoon of the next day removing the Phantom's synthetic skin and cataloging the parts that would need to be replaced. Raoul handled removing the bigger pieces of skin while Christine dealt with the finer details like what was left of his face and servos, as her nimble fingers were better suited to getting in tiny spaces. When they got around to removing the Phantom's pants, shoes, and the metal plates that had once fastened him to his bench, Raoul was surprised to find even more damage.

"Goodness, look at the damage to his feet, his skin is cracking everywhere and who bothers articulating an android's toes then fuses the joints so he can only press the pedals of an organ?" Raoul huffed as he worked on folding the remaining clothes and storing them for later. Christine giggled at her friend, a devious smile spreading across her face "Oh Raoul, you're paying attention to the wrong issue here, look" she cooed "he's basically a Ken Doll!" Christine pointed to the smooth pelvis covered in synthetic skin and bereft of any of any detail whatsoever, no painted on freckles, no shading or contouring and no, well....anything really, just skin.

Raoul rolled his eyes at his friend, it wasn't what he'd been expecting but then again he wasn't sure WHAT he'd been hoping to find in the Phantom's pants. "Raoul, you're staring" Christine cooed playfully as she cuffed him lightly on the shoulder; "oh grow up Christine I'm just...looking for anymore cracks in his skin" "oh I'm sure you are" the Swedish woman teased as she waggled her brows at the young viscount, "now come on, it's getting late and if we put off lunch any longer it will be dinner." Raoul sighed and nodded, they'd put off eating for too long and Raoul didn't allow foodstuffs in his workshop so they'd have to leave their pet project be for now.

"Do you think we could convince Philippe to cook for us?" Christine asked while flipping through her texts and sending the occasional flood of heart emojis to Meg to pester her. "Depends, he's probably neck deep in paperwork for the reconstruction of the opera house, Father wants him to run the Opera Populaire once it's rebuilt and thinks he should have some experience overseeing the reconstruction of the building before he handles the business aspect." Raoul explained, digging through the fridge for any leftovers from the night before only to come up empty handed.


	5. Hydraulics

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been made aware that Raoul's brother spells his name as Philippe and not Phillipe, so I had to go back through and change every misspelling I could find, surprisingly I didn't mention his name as much I thought I had.

The next day the pair began the next stage of repair, with all of his synthetic skin removed, Raoul and Christine were able to get a better look at the Phantom's inner workings. "Raoul look, he's got pneumatics too" Christine lifted the Phantom's right arm and moved his fingers to test their range of movement, making a pleased sound at the smooth movements of each digit, "no wonder he was so good at playing the organ, it must have cost hundreds of thousands if not millions to design and build him" The young Swede was in love with the minute details of the machine.

"Christine, do you think you could separate his toe joints? The weld job looks pretty sloppy but I don't want to risk any damage to his joints" Christine nodded, adjusting her glasses as moved her focus to his welded feet, "you're right, this welding job is awful, once we flush his hydraulics I think I can separate them, getting them to articulate after being fused for so long though...well I can't make any promises" she offered, getting a nod from Raoul.

Suiting up in their boots, work dickies, gloves, masks and goggles, the pair lifted Erik and carefully set him on the work table next to Raoul's power flushing rig. Once he was settled in Christine set up a few buckets labelled "Hazardous Material Collection and Disposal" to collect the old oil and fluid for safe pick up later. She nods to Raoul who had been examining what appeared to be modified bellows, a strange feature for an android that didn't need to breath, and the young man flipped the switch. Now all that was left was to wait.

Halfway through the process Meg arrived with pizza, and milkshakes, not ideal food for a workshop environment, but they're all hungry and it would be rude to refuse. "So, this is the latest project? He's kind of cute for a skinless old robot that's the stuff of nightmares" Meg teased as she leaned forward to steal a kiss from Christine. "That reminds me, we should probably name him" Raoul said, glancing between the divine smelling pizza and the android. "And meg you remember the rule, no food in the workshop" he said as he ushered Meg into the kitchen.


	6. His name isn't Hemingway!

When the Phantom's hydraulic fluid had been fully replaced Christine unhooked him from the power flushing rig and Raoul carried him back to the workbench, the android's arms affectionately draped over his arms as if he were simply sleeping. Meg popped in to ask if they were done and managed to snap a picture of the cute moment before Raoul set him down on the bench and propped him up against the wall. Quickly shedding her work clothes, Christine ran into the kitchen, skidding to a stop when she saw Philippe eating her pizza.

Raoul huffed after her, neatly putting away their work clothes before heading into the kitchen to steal some meatlover's before a food fight started and all was lost. "So, what are you going to name him?" Meg asked as she passed out milkshakes and gave Philippe a playful swat on Christine's behalf, "Name him?" Raoul asked, "of course, you can't just keep calling him the Phantom, he's not an opera 'droid anymore...is he?" Philippe asked, wondering if they might have a use for an organist android of his age and make.

Raoul paused for a moment, drizzling some of his chocolate milkshake onto his slice of pizza while he considered what to name the android. "Joshua?" Meg offered "No no no, something handsome like Richard or Charles" "He seems like a Hemingway to me" Christine and Philippe added while Raoul rolled his eyes. Once he was done with his slice he spoke up, "What one Earth gives you all the idea that he's anything but a--" he paused, realizing he hadn't really thought of a name for the android, "whatever his name is, I'll tell you all when I figure it out" he huffed, wondering how he'd even come up with a name when all he could think about was the machine aspect of the android.

The days passed quietly as Christine separated the Phantom's toe joints and checked his joints to see if they were still working and gave a thumbs up to Raoul who had been working on disassembling his cranium to remove his damaged optic and take a look at the damage. It wasn't going to be an easy fix to say the least, Raoul would have to replace a majority of his memory, his motherboard probably wasn't salvageable, and who knew what they were going to do about his old voice box and speaker. Raoul's heart sank lower the more he examined his find.


	7. Optimal Optics

The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was a pair of young audience members, standing a mere foot from him and staring into his eyes. He blinked. Something in his head whirred, his fans kicking on to cool his systems as he tried to figure out who had let these young folk on stage, it wasn't safe for them to be here during a performance! The Phantom looked around for an usher, someone to catch these young fools, and realized that he wasn't seated at his organ.

The Phantom's fans whirred louder as he searched his memory. there were sparks, people screaming, but it wasn't a reaction to his appearance on stage, not a programmed cower similar to what the other androids were doing. The Phantom tried to remember further back but there was a burning in his head, he tried to squint and screw his eyes shut but they seemed to be stuck. When his eyes finally closed with a quiet snap, the Phantom's mind jumped and he saw fire, sensed the world burning around him, more screams of horror, and he tried violently to wrench himself from his bench but only managed to force himself into an emergency shutdown.

The second time the Phantom opened his eyes he was in a workshop, not on stage, not in front of his organ, and not on fire. His memory was fuzzy when he dug through his files, trying to remember again. "Raoul look, he woke up." "Activated, Christine he--he activated, he actually self-activated!" A man, Raoul he assumed, rushed over to him, causing the android to recoil. The Audience wasn't supposed to get this close to the actors...but they weren't audience, he had to remember that, they seemed to be stagehands or maintenance crew, perhaps?

Raoul brought a flashlight up to the Phantom's face and shined a small light directly into his optics, first the left than the right, the android winced and blinked a few times in an attempt to protect them from the light, "his eyes are dilating and contracting like they should, you were right about upgrading his optics" "Raoul" the woman said, "don't talk shop when he's just woken up, we don't know where his mind is at right now, he's going to need some time to adjust to the world before we tell him about what happened" she chided gently. 

Raoul nodded and the Phantom mimicked the motion, testing the range of movement in his neck, "Christine look, he's running diagnostics" Raoul cooed in awe. The woman, Christine, and the Phantom rolled their eyes at the same time, and finally the Phantom spoke up. "Of course I am, the last thing that I remember was a fire, then falling off my bench, I have to run diagnostics to check for damage." The Phantom's eyes widened, his voice was different, it was clearer, deeper, than he remembered it, his audio censors had been upgraded too, he supposed, he was grateful for this as it meant he could perform better, bring in a larger audience.


End file.
